Hollow
by Miss-Odd
Summary: Heartbroken and alone, Juvia tried to flee her past and present. What she thought would only be a nice visit at a friend turned out to be the beginning of the end. But running from a demon can never end well.


The music from the stereo echoed through the car where a lonely woman was singing to the song. She didn't have the most beautiful singing voice - to be trulyhonest with you, she sang terribly - but she didn't care anymore. Because she was all alone again. A lonely and sad woman who just had her heart broken by the biggest shitass in the world. She had known that he was trouble all along. It's just when you live your whole whitout someone who loves you, you can become a little desperate for someone to hold on to in the night. Desperate for someone who will accept you for who you are, someone who will love you without limits. Even if she had been warned about Bora and his flirtatious personality it wouldn't have matterd, she had fallen for him anyway. Juvia hadn't been bothered by all the gosip about him, for her he had been a charming young man who genuinely wanted to date her, and against her better judgment, she had said yes. Someone had finally seen her, the glomy woman who dressed like a nun and spoke like an old lady - The Rain Woman. They had been together for almost a year when it happend. During a fight that had about nothing in particuarly, Bora had started accusing her of being to depressing, he had growled about how stiff she was and that the only reason that he had stayed with her for so long was because he had felt sorry for her.

She was now sitting here in the car with bloodshot eyes after she been crying for hours and with a heart that had not just been crushed, but pulverized. Why couldn't she find love as easy as in the movies? She has seen Love Actually so many times that she practicly could all the lines, after all it was her favorite movie. What if her life could be like that, she would find love, then get married and hopefully stay with each other forever. They would live in a big house with large windows near the sea and they would have many children, a cat and two dogs. Oh, how life would be perfect then!

"Stupid Juvia, you know that that only happens in movies." she hissed at herself. She continued to drive through the dark woods, the sun had gone down several hours ago, it was autumn after all. The leaves from the trees began to fall as she drove by, leaves in red, yellow and brown mixed with the rain that started to fall from the sky. It became increasingly difficult for her to see the road because of the wet leaves that got stuck to the windshield and even moisture began to form on the windshield inside the car. She reached out a hand to wipe away the moisture but it was not long before the moisture began to form again. The secound time she reached out to wipe away the moisture the radio began to crackle and skip between songs, the voices became more difficult to hear and it sounded like they were about to melt. Voices not on the CD began to whisper in the speakers, distant painful screams and low laughter made her jump. She tried desperately to turn off the radio, but it refused to shut down. The laughter grew louder and now a voice began speaking to her.

_"Die, little girl ... behead ... behead you ... the rave!" _the voice sang and a young girls' terrified scream echoed through the car. Juvia tried to stop the car, she hit the brakes but nothing happened. Instead, the car began to increase in speed, she looked terrified at the speedometer before she looked up. Her gaze was met by a shadow that stood in the middle of the road, the shadow just stood there and seemed to wait for Juvia to run over it. She could not stop the car, so in a desperate attemt to avoid a collision she swerved sideways and collided with a tree instead. She was thrown forward and hit her head on the steering wheel, the seat belt cut into her throat and she could feel the sting from the burn. Her head was spinning and her heart pounding hard in her throat, the whole world swayed back and forth and if it didn't stop soon, she would surely throw up everything in her stomach. With shaking hands, she released her convulsive grip on the steering wheel. The radio had died and the silence was almost painful, she watched carefully in the rearview mirror - afraid of what she would find - but she couldn't see anything or anyone. She sighed heavily and looked for her mobile that was in her green bag on the seat next to her. She dialed the number for a tow truck and waited patiently for someone to pick up. After a while a man awnserd, he sounded as if he was eating or just woken up, perhaps both. When the man asked her where she was, he became completly silent after she responded.

"Did you see a dark shadow on the road?" he asked hoarsely, Juvia could hear how nervous the man had become so suddenly. She was surpised and confused by the mans question. How could the man know about the cause of her accident? Why was he so nervous, it could have been an animal after all. She was just about to awnser him when he interrupted her.

"Okay, stay where you are and whatever you do, do not go out for the car! We are on our way towards you right now." the man hung up quickly and Juvia was again surrounded by silence. She pulled her jacket tighter around herself to keep warm, after the violent crash her car had stopt to function completely so there was no heat source. Perhaps it was for the better anyway because the car was not hers, but her exboyfriend's.

It didn't take long before she could hear the sound of vehicles coming towards her, when she looked up the tow truck had stopped and the driver came running towards her. Juvia had to kick the door open to get out of the wract car and soon was greeted by a fat man in blue overalls, on the name-plate it said Droy.

"Are you okay, Ms?" Droy asked while he looked at the now ruined bonnet. Juvia nodded in response and pulled the jacket tighter around herself, the icecold night air almost made her bones shiver and the heavy rain didn't make anything better. She wished that she had her scarf and umberella, but she had unfortunately forgot them both in her old apartment. A car door opened and closed with a bang behind her and when she turned around her heart skipped a beat. It started beating faster och small butterflies began to gather in her stomach, her cheeks and ears heated up and her voice seemed to have disappeared completely. In front of her was a tall man walking toward her, his black hair was stylish but fell naturally over his head and his bangs coverd mostly of his eyes. He had a narrow nose and thin lips, but it was his dark blue eyes that caught her attention, it was like staring into the oacen. My goodness, he was beautiful! Juvia was sure that he was the sexiest man she'd ever seen, she wouldn't be surprised if he turned out to be a Greek god. With the rain that ran down his hair and face, he looked like something directly taken from her darkest fantasies. The man stopped in front of her and smiled at her, Juvia was sure that if he smiled at her again, she would collapse in a heap of goo on the ground.

_No, what are you doing? You cannot go there again, not when the wounds are still fresh. Pull yourself together girl! _she screamd at herself in her head, she blinked a few times before she cleared her throat and looked at the man before her, it was then that she realized that he was wearing a police uniform.

"Hi! I'm superintendent Gray Fullbuster and you are?" the man - Gray - asked and extended his hand.

"Juvia Lockser." Juvia shook his hand and wonderd at how her small hand almost disappeared in his big one, "Forgive Juvia for her impolite question Mr. Fullbuster, but Juvia has not done anything wrong so she does not understand what a superintendent are doing here."

Hearing her question Gray chuckeld and looked down at the short woman, she had her blue hair in a bun with several strands falling down around her round face. She had big blue deer eyes and a full mouth, she was really good looking but unusually polite for her age, she sounded almost like an old lady.

"Just call me Gray, calling me by my last name makes me feel like an old man." Juvia nodded slowly, she was not used to call someone she just meet by their first name without Mr, Ms or Mrs in front.

"I'm here to escort you safely to the city, this road is quite dangerous at night." Gray smiled stiffly towards her but despite his believable words, Juvia noticed that there was something he was hiding. He went up to her car and took out the suitcases before he went towards the police car that still flashed blue. At this point Droy had started driving away with Juvias' car behind his tow truck, she looked around again. She almost expected that a shadow would appear on the road again.

"Are you coming or what?" said Gray, who was leaning against the open car door, Juvia turned quickly, she looked suspiciously at the man in front of her before she jogged up to the passenger side and sat down. It was not long before they were heading towards town again. The silence was not uncomfortable, just as peaceful as it used to be when two strangers meet. Nothing to talk about and nothing to expect from each other.

"So ... Droy said you saw a dark figure on the road. Want to talk about it?" Gray quickly pulled his eyes from the road and looked at the woman sitting next to him, her wet blue hair looked almost black as the night. She had her arms around herself and shivered strongly, her clothes were soaked after she been standing in the rain.

"Juvia never said anything about a dark shadow ... It was Mr. Droy who assumed that she had seen something."

"But you saw a shadow, right?" he asked again, this time he was worried, his eyebrows were pressed together and his forehead was wrinkled. You could see he was deep in thought.

"Yes, there was a shadow on the road waiting to get hit." Juvia started to massaging her arms to get the blood circulating going. Gray reached for the back seat and pulled out a large police jacket, he handed it to Juvia who took it hesitantly. She thanked him and put the warm jacket on, it was way too big for her but quickly warmed her up. The jacket smelled of a spicy men's fragrance with a slite mix of the salty sea, Juvia pulled the jacket discreetly to her nose and smelld the wonderful scent. _If Mr. Gray smells this good then Juvia would definitely become addicted! _Her toughts screamed in joy.

"Did you hear anything, a sound or a voice?"

Juvia looked suspiciously at the man siting next to her. This man know to much for his own good, he was chasing something that he could possibly never grasp. Juvia had a vague suspicion of what was happening, but she had sworn to never accept that part of herself to protect everyone she cared for. Could she trust him? She didn't sense any magic coming from his soul or he could be very good at hiding it. If he was indeed a mage then she would be abel to speak freely to him, but if he was just a human then she had to be on her guard. After all, the magic world was dieing and there was not many magic beings left. She couldn't take the risk of exposing herself, so she would play it on the safe side.

"Juvia havn't sleept in a while so she's really tierd. Juvia's sure that her brain was just playing with her and it's in the middle of the night, the shadow on the road was probably only an animal." Evan if Juvia was good actress and very convincing, Gray didn't look like he beleived a word she told him. Instead he just sighed and let it slide, he understood that he wouldn't get anything from the woman siting next to him.

"We're almost there, do you want me to drive to a hotel or do you live here?"

"No, Juvia is just here for visiting some friends. You could drive me to them." After Juvia told him the adress to her friends Gray just stared at the road like it was talking to him.

"You know Levy and Gajeel?" He asked suprised.

"Yes, well Juvia is going to meet Ms Levy for the first time tonight but she have known Gajeel for all her life. He is like my brother." Juvia smiled warmly at the thought her oldest friend and his fiance. She missed him so over the years, they had growed up under difficult conditions but in the end at least one of them got the ending they deserved.

"What?! That bastard never told me he had a sister! How the hell can I work with someone that never tells me anything about themself, don't the jerk trust me?" Juvia couldn't help herself, she just laughed at Gray and his little fit. After a while Gray looked at her again and asked.

"Are you really his sister? You don't look like him?"

"We are not biological siblings, but we have grown up together and treat eachother like siblings."

"I though so, you couldn't possibly be related to the metal brain." Gray mutered and turned right after the trafficlight turned green.

_"I though so, someone as hot as you couldn't possibly be related to the metal brain."_

_"I want to date you, Juvia!"_

Gray couldn't see the woman in the night as her face reflected every shade of red that existed. Juvia tride despretly to not get a nosebleed, it was damn hard when she could hear Grays sexy voice in her head whispering those words to her. It didn't help that he was a police and in his uniform, it just feed her dark fantacis.

_No, shut up mind! Juvia don't want to get hurt again. Maybe Mr Gray has a girlfriend ... or a boyfriend. Oh God! Sexy policeman Mr Gray Fullbuster with another man!_

_... Juvia have seen a pice of heaven ... _

It seemed that the policeman was totally oblivious of the woman that was having a heartattack right next to him.

The car ride was over to soon for Juvia, she now stod outside on the street, looking up at a dark blue house with ivy that almoust coverd the whole house. The trunk of the police car was closed with a bang, Gray come up to the nervous woman with her luggage and looked at her. She may not be trembling but he could see that she was scared, her eyes told him everything.

"Hey, it's going to be alright. The matel head can't say no to his sisther, right?" He gave her a encouraging smile and it helpt, Juvia smiled back and took her luggage befor she went up to the red door. She knocked two times befor she could hear heavy steps runing towards the door, it was ripped open and there stod a big man with shaggy black hair like a birdnest. His red eyes was narrowed and with all his piercings he could scar someone half to death. But Juvia wasn't scared, she was only happy to see her beloved friend.

"Hello, Gajeel!"

"Damn, woman! What the fuck did you do? Walk all the way here? Do you know how late it is? Damn crazy woman." Even if he was angry, Juvia know that it was his only way of showing her how worried he had been.

"She was in an car accident on the way here, she crashed into a tree."

Gajeel looked up at Gray as if it was the first time he had ever seen the man, he looked at Juvia one last time befor he stept aside so Juvia could go through the door.

"Get in, Levy's in the living room." Juvia looked from Gajeel to Gray, but neather of them was acknowledging her. They just glared at each other as if an ordless challenge was happening.

"Thank you for your help, Mr Gray. I hope we'll meet again some day." Juvia smiled the biggest smile she could muster. The said man looked at Juvia, he looked suprised, as if he had forgotten that she was still there. She went through the door, never hearing his goodbye.

"I know what you're doing, stripper. You stay away from Juvia, she has noting to do with your crazy ideas." growled Gajeel at the cold man before him and closed the door with a bang.


End file.
